MIT scientists have demonstrated a glowing 60-watt light bulb that is not connected directly to a live socket, in a pioneering research that could show the way to wireless recharging of mobile devices.

The team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led by Marin Soljacic, reported their findings in the journal Science. They said they had demonstrated wireless transmission of electric power by magnetically coupled resonators, calling their new technology “WiTricity.”

The 33-year-old Prof. Soljacic said wireless transmission appears to be about 80 percent as efficient as wired transmission over short distances. More importantly, he noted that the resonant devices interact with each other without interfering with either biological processes or other electrical devices.

20th century inventor Nikola Tesla, to whom we owe much of our present electric power, worked on similar methods for wireless transmission during his time but did not pursue it.